A guarded sigh of relief over Syria

Mike TowerJust My Opinion

Published: Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, September 13, 2013 at 1:10 p.m.

The American attacks on Syria have been delayed, and most Americans are grateful. For President Barack Obama to have even remotely considered another Middle East war was utter madness. The only realistic American beneficiary for such a war is the armaments industry.

In trying to drum up support for an attack on Syria, Obama claimed it was to teach its leader that we will not stand by and allow innocent people to be killed with dreaded chemical weapons. Continuing use of conventional weapons, which has already killed 100,000, apparently is OK, but another 1,000 or so killed by unknown perpetrators with chemical weapons somehow crossed an imaginary red line. Are the other 100,000 or so killed less dead?

Any civil war is tragic. However, in Syria, we can't even identify the good or bad players. We don't know how many various factions sponsored by outside organizations are fighting to depose or support Bashar Assad. We can be sure that no matter who wins, the winners and losers will remain united in their hatred of America.

Let's take a journey back in time to remember some of the other notable military engagements our elected leaders from both parties have led our nation into, and the horrible devastation that was caused by their bad decisions.

In Vietnam, our politicians, from the safety of their offices, led our troops in the killing of hundreds of thousands of opposing military and innocent civilians. These battles ended up costing American families more than 58,000 of their children's lives and three times that number of wounded, many of those disabled for life.

Ground-based killing was massively supplemented by dropping millions of pounds of bombs and napalm on areas that purposefully included civilians because our leaders were certain these outgunned people would surrender once they realized they had no chance against our technical superiority.

Next, we dumped millions of gallons of a chemical warfare product called Agent Orange aimed at deforestation and destroying food crops. It worked so well that it resulted in the reported deaths of an estimated 400,000 civilians — and another 500,000 birth defects during the decades that have followed. If that wasn't chemical warfare, what is?

We should abhor the deaths and suffering of innocent Vietnamese civilians caused by our politicians. However, as Americans, we should feel even worse for our armed services personnel, who either paid the ultimate price or returned home, often wounded and disabled, only to be treated horribly by fellow citizens simply because they had done their duty by honorably serving their nation.

The returning troops should never have been blamed. It was the damned politicians who should have felt the American anger!

Following 9/11, and with full congressional support, Bush invaded Afghanistan. I doubt many Americans did not support this initial engagement in the war on terror. Unfortunately, as they had done in Vietnam and would later repeat in Iraq, our leaders gave little thought to a future exit strategy.

Before this war was even finished, Bush decided to invade Iraq. We can speculate about the real reasons for this war, but it clearly was not because of weapons of mass destruction. We attacked with an incredible array of sophisticated weaponry but did little to prevent civilian casualties. Total Iraqi deaths have been estimated to be between 175,000 and a million. The number of American military killed was relatively small, but many thousands more were wounded and many have been left with lifelong disabilities.

The decision to remove Saddam Hussein turned out to be a gift that never stops giving — bloodshed, that is! Many Middle East experts warned, correctly it turns out, that Iraq would inevitably end up a virtual killing field as the Sunni and Shiite Muslim religious sects would fight for control if he were removed.

Vietnam is a distant memory except for the brave surviving veterans who fought so valiantly and sacrificed so much. Iraq has been abandoned to civil war, and no matter who wins, the winners and losers will hate America forever. Afghanistan is also soon to be abandoned. Al-Qaida and the Taliban can hardly wait for the spoils left behind. The real losers in these three countries invaded by America are the innocent civilians, our brave troops, and taxpayers.

When Obama was elected, most Americans expected him to remove our troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible. Instead he made two bad decisions. He sent in even more troops and then told the enemy exactly when we would be pulling out. The enemy may not be sophisticated, but it is smart enough to know all it had to do was hunker down and wait for the withdrawal. Can you imagine how Afghan civilians who had agreed to help our troops must feel knowing they will soon be abandoned to our enemies, who are well known to practice swift and brutal retribution?

We all had better hope the international community can find ways to ensure that Assad turns over his chemical weapons stockpiles. If not, our president may have backed America into a corner.

I'm sure the armament industry lobbyists are working day and night to develop convincing reasons for him to order an attack. They are clearly becoming short of the customers that are created by wars, and their institutional shareholders must be worried.

Mike Tower lives in Hendersonville. Reach him at miketower@bellsouth.net.

<p>The American attacks on Syria have been delayed, and most Americans are grateful. For President Barack Obama to have even remotely considered another Middle East war was utter madness. The only realistic American beneficiary for such a war is the armaments industry.</p><p>In trying to drum up support for an attack on Syria, Obama claimed it was to teach its leader that we will not stand by and allow innocent people to be killed with dreaded chemical weapons. Continuing use of conventional weapons, which has already killed 100,000, apparently is OK, but another 1,000 or so killed by unknown perpetrators with chemical weapons somehow crossed an imaginary red line. Are the other 100,000 or so killed less dead?</p><p>Any civil war is tragic. However, in Syria, we can't even identify the good or bad players. We don't know how many various factions sponsored by outside organizations are fighting to depose or support Bashar Assad. We can be sure that no matter who wins, the winners and losers will remain united in their hatred of America.</p><p>Let's take a journey back in time to remember some of the other notable military engagements our elected leaders from both parties have led our nation into, and the horrible devastation that was caused by their bad decisions.</p><p>In Vietnam, our politicians, from the safety of their offices, led our troops in the killing of hundreds of thousands of opposing military and innocent civilians. These battles ended up costing American families more than 58,000 of their children's lives and three times that number of wounded, many of those disabled for life.</p><p>Ground-based killing was massively supplemented by dropping millions of pounds of bombs and napalm on areas that purposefully included civilians because our leaders were certain these outgunned people would surrender once they realized they had no chance against our technical superiority.</p><p>Next, we dumped millions of gallons of a chemical warfare product called Agent Orange aimed at deforestation and destroying food crops. It worked so well that it resulted in the reported deaths of an estimated 400,000 civilians — and another 500,000 birth defects during the decades that have followed. If that wasn't chemical warfare, what is?</p><p>We should abhor the deaths and suffering of innocent Vietnamese civilians caused by our politicians. However, as Americans, we should feel even worse for our armed services personnel, who either paid the ultimate price or returned home, often wounded and disabled, only to be treated horribly by fellow citizens simply because they had done their duty by honorably serving their nation.</p><p>The returning troops should never have been blamed. It was the damned politicians who should have felt the American anger!</p><p>Following 9/11, and with full congressional support, Bush invaded Afghanistan. I doubt many Americans did not support this initial engagement in the war on terror. Unfortunately, as they had done in Vietnam and would later repeat in Iraq, our leaders gave little thought to a future exit strategy.</p><p>Before this war was even finished, Bush decided to invade Iraq. We can speculate about the real reasons for this war, but it clearly was not because of weapons of mass destruction. We attacked with an incredible array of sophisticated weaponry but did little to prevent civilian casualties. Total Iraqi deaths have been estimated to be between 175,000 and a million. The number of American military killed was relatively small, but many thousands more were wounded and many have been left with lifelong disabilities.</p><p>The decision to remove Saddam Hussein turned out to be a gift that never stops giving — bloodshed, that is! Many Middle East experts warned, correctly it turns out, that Iraq would inevitably end up a virtual killing field as the Sunni and Shiite Muslim religious sects would fight for control if he were removed.</p><p>Vietnam is a distant memory except for the brave surviving veterans who fought so valiantly and sacrificed so much. Iraq has been abandoned to civil war, and no matter who wins, the winners and losers will hate America forever. Afghanistan is also soon to be abandoned. Al-Qaida and the Taliban can hardly wait for the spoils left behind. The real losers in these three countries invaded by America are the innocent civilians, our brave troops, and taxpayers. </p><p>When Obama was elected, most Americans expected him to remove our troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible. Instead he made two bad decisions. He sent in even more troops and then told the enemy exactly when we would be pulling out. The enemy may not be sophisticated, but it is smart enough to know all it had to do was hunker down and wait for the withdrawal. Can you imagine how Afghan civilians who had agreed to help our troops must feel knowing they will soon be abandoned to our enemies, who are well known to practice swift and brutal retribution?</p><p>We all had better hope the international community can find ways to ensure that Assad turns over his chemical weapons stockpiles. If not, our president may have backed America into a corner.</p><p>I'm sure the armament industry lobbyists are working day and night to develop convincing reasons for him to order an attack. They are clearly becoming short of the customers that are created by wars, and their institutional shareholders must be worried.</p><p>Mike Tower lives in Hendersonville. Reach him at miketower@bellsouth.net.</p>